Vaping Angel ($52.80) surprises in Pike Place Dancer
Vaping Angel ($52.80), the longest shot in the field of six 2-year-old fillies, stunned her rivals with a strong stretch run to win the $75,450 Pike Place Dancer at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday.
The one-mile turf race was the Southern Image filly's first start on turf, although she had broken her maiden at one mile on Sept. 4.
Vaping Angel was last early and didn't begin to move up until midway around the second turn. Jockey Pedro Terrero guided her to the open rail as she began to make her move.
Sen Sen, coming off a maiden sprint victory, set a comfortable pace of 23.76, 48.68 and 1:14.22 and maintained her advantage into the lane before Vaping Angel made her move.
Favored Wishing On a Star, who had been stalking, had fallen back approaching the quarter pole, and Code Ribbon seemed poised to make a move.
But it was Vaping Angel who took off as Sen Sen began to fade. Jessebear, fourth in a maiden race in her debut, rallied for second over Code Ribbon, but neither was a match for the Dr. and Mrs. William Gray homebred, who was scoring the first turf victory for her dam Nada Joke.
Vaping Angel, trained by Felix Rondan, clocked 1:40.90 for the mile, winning by 1 1/4 lengths. She earned $45,000 for her second victory in four starts and has now earned $74,826 with a third and fourth to go along with her two victories.